


Between the Episodes

by allhypedup



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Smut, one shots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2020-07-19 23:00:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19981957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allhypedup/pseuds/allhypedup
Summary: Random one shots featuring our favorite BAU agent! (some work previously posted on my inactive tumblr - astarkiller)





	1. Overheard

You didn’t understand how more people didn’t appreciate Spencer’s beauty. They way he spoke, his excitement over the strangest and smallest things. The way his mouth would be slightly open when he was intently listening to someone. More than once, you found yourself watching him. He never realized, of course. Much to your relief. Your feelings for your coworker were yours and yours alone. You were questioned about it. Mostly by Emily, but she never pushed. Yet she always had a smile on her face like she new a secret. That smile always made you nervous.

It was easier loving in silence. Without anyone knowing, then it wasn’t a worry. By staying silent about it, you could pretend that he secretly loved you back. Pretend that when he went quiet, he was thinking of you. That when he looked at you, he didn't just see another profiler - but someone that made him happy.

Well, there was one person who knew. You didn’t exactly mean to tell Penelope, but she caught you off guard with a question and the next thing you knew, you had spilled out every thought you had. From the first moment you met him, to the moment you realized your feelings. She tried to comfort you, tried to find ways to figure out if he felt the same, but you shot down everything she did. You were too afraid that he was going to find out. Too afraid of what was going to happen next.

Which made it hard during moments like these. Hotch had sent the two of you to check out the abandoned warehouse were the current suspect was often seen. Your heart sped up when your boss paired you up, but when the two of you were finally alone, the excitement quickly changed into panic. You were in the middle of a case. You couldn't let this distract you. The last thing you needed was to get hurt because you were too busy sending googly eyes of love towards the doctor.

Catching yourself before you got into any trouble, you got his attention by clearing your throat. “I’ll check around back.” You nodded to him, walking slowly into the building. The warehouse was almost completely empty, with nothing showing why anyone would want to be here. In your experienced mind, you knew that made it the perfect place for an unsub. You lifted up empty boxes, checked shelves, but nothing. No hints or clues to anything. Your eyes scanned the floors, disappointed that there wasn't even a trap door. There was just . . . nothing.

You pushed out a breath, your hands resting on your hips. Your mind was busy running through what you knew about the unsub, you didn’t even notice Spencer standing behind you until he started talking. Letting out a small yelp, you turned, your hand pressed to your chest.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Spencer lifted his hands slightly, a smile playing at his lips. You rolled your eyes, trying to even out your breathing. You hoped you could play off the blush tinting your cheeks as nothing but surprise.

Catching your breath, you spoke. “Did you find anything? There’s nothing around here.”

“No, nothing. We should call Garcia. See if there is something around here that he might be going to instead.” You nodded, pulling out your cell phone. You put the call on speaker, standing still while Spencer looked around the room again.

 _“Yes, my love?”_ Garcia’s voice came through the speaker in it’s usual peppy tone. You never told her, but her voice always made you feel better. She was the one person the team could count on to bring light to the day. An easy smile came on your face as you answered.

“Reid and I are at the warehouse, but there’s nothing here. Can you see if there’s another place he could be going? Maybe some place nearby?” You heard her start to type away on her computer before she hummed.

“ _No, nothing. Wait, there’s a hiking trail that runs towards the back. It looks like it leads to where some of the bodies were found._ ”

“Great, thanks.”

“ _You and Reid, huh? Have you told him how you are longing for his -_ ”

“Bye, Garcia.” You felt bad hanging up on your friend, but the heat that was creeping up the back of your neck took priority. Spencer stopped what he was doing and turned toward you. His eyebrows came together and he opened his mouth to say something. Before he could, you pointed towards the car.

“We should probably head back.” You didn’t give him time to respond before you were heading back to the car.

-

Hotch had ordered you back before you could look at the trail. He wanted to bring the whole team up to speed before moving on the the next step. You agreed, thankful that you weren't going to have any alone time with Spencer after that.

He didn’t say anything to you on the way back to the precinct, but you felt him look at you. This time, you preferred to imagine that the look wasn't there at all. When you arrived back, you filled in the team with what Garcia had told you and waited for your next move.

You phone rang in your pocket and seeing Penelope’s name flash on the screen, you excused yourself to answer.

“Hey.”

“ _Oh my God, I am so sorry. He heard me didn’t he? I am the worst ever. Me and my big mouth -_ ”

“Hey, hey – stop, it’s okay.” You laughed lightly, all bad feelings disappearing. “I’m not mad.” And it was true. Your shoulders dropped as you rubbed your eyes. You were just ready for this day, and this whole case, to be over. 

“ _Are you sure?”_ Her voice reminded you of a sad puppy dog and all you wanted to do at that moment was hug her.

You tried to make your voice sound as genuine as possible. “I promise, Penelope.”

“ _Okay good. I couldn’t handle it if you hated me._ ”

“I could never hate you.” You laughed again, the both of you clearly feeling better.

“ _That’s what I like to hear. But really, did he hear me? Did he say anything?_ ” She spoke quietly, as if she was afraid he was going to hear her again.

You pushed out a breath, your hand running through your hair. “No, he didn’t. I don’t know if he heard you or not, honestly. I’m too afraid to ask.”

“ _Tell him how you feel._ _What’s the worst that can happen?_ ”

“A lot. For one, I could tell him how I felt and he could look at me and say ‘ _gross’_.”

“I wouldn’t say that.” His voice stopped you. Nope, that didn’t just happen. Spencer Reid was not standing behind you. You turned slowly and a groan threatened to leave you as you saw him standing there.

Garcia gasped loudly on the phone and let out a small squeal. “ _Tell Boy Wonder hi for me._ ” She hung up the phone and you hated her all over again. You bit your tongue, afraid of what was happening.

“I don’t know what -”

“Aynsley, do you have feelings for me?” Damn, he got right to the point. Spencer took a small step towards you. He spoke quietly, his face blank.

“What makes you think that?” A shaking voice added onto your lame question. _Awesome, Aynsley. Good work._

“I know we aren’t supposed to profile each other but, sometimes it’s hard not to. Also, I could hear Garcia on the other end of the phone.” You look down at the phone in your hand, praying to whoever that it would come to life and create a distraction so you could run away as fast as you could.

No such luck.

“Aynsley?” You pulled your eyes back up and slowly nodded. You didn’t trust yourself to speak. Every bad scenario ran through your head. He was going to tell you how he didn't feel the same. You were going to be told to transfer departments. He was going to avoid you from now on. That thought alone made your heart break.

But none of those bad moments happened. Instead, he stepped to you, hesitated, and pressed a small kiss to your cheek.

“We think we found the unsub. Let’s go.” He stayed close to you for a second before smiling. He turned to meet up with the rest of the team and it took everything in you not to melt to the floor. You sent a small text to Garcia before following him.

-

Garcia glanced down at her phone at the beep. Opening the text message from Aynsley she laughed out loud. It was simple, but she new exactly what it meant.

 **From Aynsley:** :)

 **To Aynsley:** FINALLY!!!


	2. Happy Endings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was a request I had gotten a while ago!
> 
> Request: can you do a one shot where the reader hates sad endings and spencer helps her only see happy endings? like in books and disney movies and stuff. does that make sense???? lol thank you!!

A bright light shone against your eyes, causing you to groan. You rolled over onto your stomach, throwing your pillow over your head. One day. You just wanted to sleep in one day. You had finally had time off from work, and your damn body was still up and ready at some dumb hour.

You ignored the world, figuring if you didn’t open your eyes, you could fall right back asleep. Unfortunately, that didn’t work. With a sigh, you pulled your head from under the pillow and slowly stood. Your body ached, your mind ached. You were exhausted. When you got the job at the BAU, however many years ago, you expected the long hours and the severe cases. You just never expected the constant feeling of exhaustion.

Coffee and a shower always helped. As the coffee was brewing, you jumped into the shower. Slowly, your body started to relax and the grumpiness from the morning washed away. You quickly got dressed and sat outside with your coffee, the morning sun finally feeling nice instead of intruding.

Your phone beeped on the small table next to you and your heart skipped. You hated that just seeing his name gave you that feeling. Having a crush on a coworker was never something good. It wasn’t something that could happen, and you knew that. But no matter how many times you tried to push aside your feelings or tell yourself that it was nothing, he would give you that big smile and you would melt all over again.

You picked up your phone, a smile appearing at the message.

_Still on for today?_

You typed back your reply, hoping you didn’t sound too eager. Not that he would notice. Though Dr. Spencer Reid was the BAU’s resident genius, he never seemed to notice when you would say something that would give a slight hint to your feelings.

Unfortunately for you, everyone else noticed. You begged them not to say anything, even though Morgan was way too eager to intervene. Eventually, the other members of the team agreed and you felt a little bit of relief.

So, you had these moments. Whenever you were lucky enough to have a day off, you and Spencer would find time to spend together. Most of the time was spent in bookstores. You would watch him search the aisles, trying to find something he hadn’t read before. When he was finished with that, he would start handing you books he would think you would like. Each book he gave came with his own summary and more information about the author than would be listed on the back cover.

You never minded. You could listen to him talk for hours.

Spencer replied back to the text message, suggesting you meet now. You replied back a bit too quickly, agreeing. You felt silly for being so excited for something that you weren’t sure meant anything to Spencer.

By the time you got to the bookstore, Spencer was already inside, three books in his hands. He was flipping through the top one and after a moment, he put it back on the shelf. You snuck up behind him, grinning.

“I knew you could read fast, but damn that was impressive.” Spencer gave a slight jump and turned, his shoulders dropping seeing it was you.

“I was debating about showing that one to you.” You picked up the book he just put back, your eyes scanning the back cover.

“And what made you change your mind?”

“Sad ending.” You smiled, putting the book back.

“You know me too damn well, Dr. Reid.” Spencer shrugged.

“After spending all this time together, I guess I picked up on a few things.” You laughed, your eyes looking through the books. No titles seemed to jump out to you, but you didn’t mind taking your time.

“Hopefully good things.” You straightened up, looking over at him. He nodded.

“Of course.” Your eyes narrowed playfully and you crossed your arms.

“You know how to flatter a girl, don’t you Reid?”

“Hardly.” He mumbled the word, and you took it as a sign to stop pushing. You understood how Spencer worked, and how he didn’t have the best luck when (rarely when) he was interested in someone. You felt terrible. Even though you selfishly wanted it to be you, he deserved to be happy with the person who loved him for all of his quirks.

A silence fell between you two as you kept browsing. After a while, a few books had made their way into your hands. Spencer found you again, a pile in his own. He frowned at your collection, shaking his head at some of the titles.

“No good?” You frowned, looking down. Quickly, Spencer shortened your pile of seven books down to three. “Damn. All bad endings?”

“Well, most. This one here is just full of grammar mistakes.”

“Maybe I should just get over it and read them anyway. Sad endings or no.”

“You shouldn’t change what you like.”

“If I don’t, then I won’t ever be able to read anything ever again. Don’t authors know that people need happy endings too? That aren’t just children’s books?” You spoke mostly to yourself. You felt silly, always trying to shield yourself from bad endings. Penelope and Spencer helped you in that. While Spencer picked out the happy ending books, Penelope recommended all the good ending movies.

Though you found it to be a silly childish thing, you appreciated that the two of them didn’t say anything about it. Instead, they helped you. But now, you were going to try it. Just because a book had a sad ending, doesn’t mean it wasn’t good. Picking up one of the ones that Spencer took away, you gave him a wide smile.

“One cry won’t kill me, right?”

-

Two days later, you hated everything. The book was on the floor, slightly ruffled from you, throwing it at the wall. Tears filled your eyes and you couldn’t stop them. You were only in the silent crying stage, but you knew if you kept reading that you would eventually cry more.

Why did can’t people just be happy? This is why you couldn’t be out on the field with the rest of the team. You liked it where you were, sitting next to Penelope, doing what she told you and learning all you could.

After a few deep breaths, you calmed yourself down. Leaving the book on the floor, you grabbed your jacket and headed out. It was only a ten-minute walk to Spencer’s place. You took the time to focus on your breathing, trying to get your heart rate to calm down.

By the time you got to Spencer’s door, you had thought that you were okay. But as soon as he opened the door and saw your face, his own fell.

“You read the book, didn’t you?” You nodded, frowning slightly. “Come inside.” Spencer wrapped his arm around you and pushed you gently on the couch. You stayed silent as you watched him move around. A second later, he was sitting on the couch with you, handing you tea. You smiled at him, taking the blanket that you had wrapped around yourself and put it over his lap.

He turned the TV on and you saw the Disney logo bright on the screen. Spencer didn’t say anything but put his arm around you. The beginning of the first song played, but all you could think about was his fingers on the bare skin of your shoulder.

Whenever you were sad, Spencer always went out of his way to cheer you up. He tried so many different things, hoping to get it all right. He never knew, and you weren’t sure you would ever tell him, but the only thing you ever needed was for him to be sitting right next to you.

**Author's Note:**

> let me know what you think! i am open for requests as well :)


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